Vertis Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 30, 2012

22-RC-061844 (N.L.R.B. Nov. 30, 2012)

NOT INCLUDED IN HGB
BOUND VOLUMES Monroe, NJ
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
VERTIS, INC.
Employer
and Case 22-RC-061844
LOCAL 1, AMALGAMATED LITHOGRAPHERS
OF AMERICA, GCC/IBT
Petitioner
DECISION AND DIRECTION
The National Labor Relations Board, by a three-member panel, has considered
determinative challenged ballots and objections in an election held August 31, 2011,
and the administrative law judge’s report recommending disposition of them.1 The
election was conducted pursuant to a Stipulated Election Agreement. The tally of
ballots shows 37 for and 35 against the Petitioner, with 2 challenged ballots, a number
sufficient to affect the election’s results.

1 By letter dated February 17, 2012, the Employer argued that the President’s
recess appointments of Members Griffin and Block were unconstitutional and invalid.
The Employer thus objected to the Board issuing a ruling or decision related to this case
until it has a properly appointed lawful quorum. For the reasons set forth in Center for
Social Change, Inc., 358 NLRB No. 24 (2012), we reject this argument.
2
Having reviewed the record in light of the exceptions and briefs, the Board
adopts the judge’s findings2 and recommendations.3
DIRECTION
IT IS DIRECTED that the Regional Director for Region 22 shall, within 14 days
from the date of this Decision and Direction, open and count the ballots of Frank
Swercheck and Luisa Diaz. The Regional Director shall then serve on the parties a
revised tally of ballots and issue the appropriate certification.
Dated, Washington, D.C., November 30, 2012.
________________________________
Brian E. Hayes, Member

2 The judge was sitting as a hearing officer in this representation proceeding. The
parties have excepted to some of the hearing officer’s credibility findings. The Board’s
established policy is not to overrule a hearing officer’s credibility resolutions unless the
clear preponderance of all the relevant evidence convinces us that they are incorrect.
Stretch-Tex Co., 118 NLRB 1359, 1361 (1957). We have carefully examined the record
and find no basis for reversing the findings.
3 We adopt the hearing officer’s recommendation to overrule the challenges to the
ballots of Frank Swercheck and Luisa Diaz. In doing so, we rely on the credited
testimony of Swercheck that he was not assigned to be an interim or temporary
supervisor. We also rely on the implicitly credited testimony of Manual Insertion
Supervisor Diane Ryder that she remained in that position after being assigned the
Scheduler duties and that, although Diaz was given more responsibility to “oversee”
other employees in the Manual Insertion department, she needed Ryder’s approval in
order to deal with any employee or work-related problems. Thus, we find that the Union
failed to show that these employees had actually been placed in the Manufacturing
Manager or Manual Insertion Supervisor position on an interim basis, and therefore
these employees remained in their team leader positions during the relevant period.
We further note that the Union has failed to present any evidence that, in their team
leader positions (which were stipulated to be non-supervisory), Swercheck and Diaz
had been given the authority to exercise, or had ever exercised, any 2(11) indicia using
independent judgment.
Last, with respect to another issue, the hearing officer cited the judge’s decision
in Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital (20-RC-018241), JD(SF)-18-10, which we note was
subsequently adopted by the Board in an unpublished order dated December 29, 2010.
3
________________________________
Richard F. Griffin, Jr., Member
________________________________
Sharon Block, Member
(SEAL) NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD